However, with Johnson in the fold for a price of $8 million this season, the Padres can effectively slot him ahead of a collection of rehabbing pitchers (Cory Luebke and Joe Wieland) and promising prospects (Burch Smith, Robbie Erlin and Matt Wisler) thought to be vying for the final rotation spot heading into the offseason.

General manager Josh Byrnes stopped short of saying those kind of guys could be trade chips as the Padres look to fill a number of needs this offseason, namely in left-handed power and left-handed reliever department, neither of which is an easy match for the Padres in free agency.

“It doesn’t mean we’re done,” Byrnes said. “We have some issues we need to address and some areas that we could upgrade. To go into the offseason a month ago and say we can add pitcher like this as our first move, I think a month ago we would have said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

Let’s do it? The Padres?

That at the very least should inspire some confidence that the Padres’ new ownership group means business now that it’s had more than a year to get its feet under it.

Last year, the biggest offseason move was re-signing Jason Marquis to a one-year, $3 million deal. True, this group has spent a significant amount on contract extensions for Carlos Quentin, Huston Street, Will Venable and Chris Denorfia, to name a few (like them or love them) but Wednesday’s signing of Johnson signaled that the Padres weren’t just blowing smoke when they said they expected to increase its $68 million payroll by as much as 20 percent this offseason.

Maybe, just maybe Johnson is just the start of a busy offseason.

“We wouldn’t have been able to do this last year,” new Padres president Mike Dee said. “We’re chipping away.”

Added Byrnes: “We feel good about where we are in November. There’s still room this offseason to try to make it better and in season. From where we sit today, I think this is a step forward, and we have the resources and depth to try to keep trying to improve.”